Barbie - The princess and the popstar free printables!

Barbie The Princess & The Popstar Birthday party!

Little Miss T. was quite clear she wanted to be a princess and a popstar for her birthday..there was no question of being just one or the other! Her favourite movie right now being barbie in the princess and the popstar, there was no way she was going to agree to be anything but both...

I designed a series of printables for her birthday party beginning with a backstage pass invitation threaded on ribbon lanyards. Attached below are the printables for them...they are set up to print 4 on an A4 card sheet. Click on the link below, print, cut out, punch and thread with ribbon. I also did tent cards for food and for the bar, game station signs, a cd jewel case with a playlist of barbie songs I burned for the kids as party favors and a series of quotes by barbie that I printed out and mounted on bright pink sparkly cardstock! The entertainment for the evening started off with a make up/ hair artist who gave all Miss.T's guests a sparkly hairdo with glittery barrettes and clip on hair extensions.  Most of the girls went for the princess look and the boys for the popstar! I had also created a little dress up station where I had necklaces, bracelets etc that we had made, store bought tiaras, inflated balloon guitars etc that they could use to dress up with. There was a big bouncy castle in the garden that the boys just wouldn't get off. We played a decorate your own microphone craft and finished up the evening with a couple of rounds of freeze dance on  a dance floor created out of foam playmats and edged with child safe rope lights. The girls just wouldnt get off the floor! I stuck to easy food this time with sandwiches, fries, strawberry yogurt cups, hummus and cut vegetables and of course sausages!!  The dessert was a huge hit with purple and pink jello cups and sparkly pink cake pops. And of course a princess and popstar cake!

All jpg's can be accessed through the links below....

All access backstage pass invitation, bar tent card, Cupcake toppers, decorate your microphone craft game sign, a backstage sign for tattoos, hair and makeup, and a photobooth. The cd jewel case and barbie quotes 1, 2, 3, 4  and 5 were quite a hit!

diwali!

Its finally here...homes across the country have been scrubbed and cleaned from top to bottom in a symbolic process of removing the remnants of the old to make way for the new year. The glitz and the glimmer, the shine and the sparkle of lamps, garlands and candles light up the nights.

A kandil - a hanging lantern made of translucent plastic and paper, embellished with silver balls,  ribbons and mirrors. A light is placed inside these akash deepams ( or sky lanterns) and at night they glow at the entrances of north indian homes all across Hyderabad. These lanterns are hand made by craftsmen and women in the old city in Hyderabad, an artform woven around the festival season.

I love them, and always admired them hanging in houses during Diwali and this year, I finally made the trek to get a couple for myself. I hung one lantern outside my main door and one in my pergola in the back garden.  Its beautiful, especially at night when it glows with light, throwing colored shadows on the ceiling above. 

A gorgeous beaded elephant and parrot thoran ( doorway garland) that I picked up in Shilparaman this year. Every year, my sister in law and I go to Shilparaman - a craft bazaar in hyderabad to pick up handmade decorations and clay diyas for Diwali. Usually I pick up a traditional looking toran but this year I was really tempted by this beaded kitschy garland...

The torans and the decorations are put up as soon as the ritual house cleaning is finished. 

A beaded mango leaf toran also from shilaparaman, that has been hung above the entrance to my pooja room. A friend gave me this gorgeous clay bell toran that I hung underneath the mango leaves. 

This year I decided to paint the walls of my pooja room.. I painted a design in gold paint on to the main wall and painted the side walls in a bright  saffron yellow. 

I collect old, embellished Ravi Varma prints, and have been lucky to have found a matching pair of Lakshmi and Saraswati, embellished in pink fabric with flowers, silver  and gold zari and sequins. I bought these over 10 years ago in a dusty old antique store in chennai..

The pair above is the goddess Lakshmi with her husband Vishnu on the right. They say that traditionally " no chaste Indian wife will go to a home where she has been invited without her husband"  and although the Diwali puja usually involves only worshiping Ganeshji and goddess Lakshmi, I add Lord Vishnu to the process as well. ! :)

Ganeshji is worshiped as the remover of all obstacles, and always invoked before the start of any puja. 

Lakshmiji is worshipped as she is the Goddess of wealth and to invite her in to your homes is said to be to ask her to bless you with wealth and prosperity for the year ahead..

an antique glass painting of Ganeshji, the actual painting is done on glass...

The goddess Saraswati...

My silver idols of Lakshmiji and Ganeshji have been dressed in bright new clothes, embroidered with zari and crystals , that I picked up again in the old city..

The pooja room at night.. lit up with fairy lights...

A simple rangoli done outside the front door...

The crowds in Begum bazaar, selling garlands, flowers and diyas all piled up in little stores on the pavement.

Two sadhus I saw walking around..

Firecracker stores that have mushroomed all around the city!

A clay diya seller and his wares..

Kitschy, bright Lord Ganesha, inspired by Kerala mural painting!

I went for  a workshop on Kerala murals and came back home completely inspired to create something.. this was the result! A combination of my kitsch portraits and the Kerala mural background painting techniques. Acrylic on canvas with embellishments of kundan, zari and glitter and an invocation prayer painted in for blessings!

size : 22/30 inches stretched canvas.

Priced at Rs. 35,000.

The river runs through

New paintings for sale..
"The river runs through" is part of a collection based on the temple towns of India, that are built around the holy rivers that run through them. These paintings depict the evening aarti ( worship of the holy river) on the river bank, with floating diyas and flowers on the water and the glitter and gleam of thousands of lamps that are lit and circled by devotees on the river bank in prayer. All along the banks of the river are small temples.  

Acrylic on canvas.. 18/24 inches, priced at Rs.9,500 each. 

Kitsch inspired mixed media collage paintings!

 Abstract kitsch inspired mixed media collages done on paper. I have always sketched and doodled and collaged on pieces of paper! I love to collage... and i love to hoard scraps of paper, cloth, ribbons and other bits and bobs coz I just know that I will end up finding a place for it somewhere in my collages. 

I didn't realize that there was an art form dedicated to this kind of work until I came across the work of that incredibly talented and incredibly generous artist Teesha Moore. Her website is a plethora of information, how to videos and much much more. I wish I could have done a workshop with her but thats a little hard sitting on the other side of the world! :) Some day I hope I do!!! Many thanks Teesha for all your help!

Needless to say I fell head over heels in love with the style of work and haven't looked back since! I started journaling on a daily basis and it never fails to kickstart my creativity.

This painting below is called Ganesha - the protector.. Any good event in hindu culture in India, starts with a prayer and a request for a blessing from Ganesha. 

Mitesh, my husband is Hindu, a marwadi from rajasthan and I am a syrian christian from kerala... our lives are a integration of two cultures, two faiths and we both enjoy it very much.

This painting is something that I did for myself. I believe Archangel Micheal has helped me a lot. He has truly protected me. I turned to him at a point when I was feeling very negative and worried about the energies around me, and he just made it all go away. My empath nature has made me more susceptible than most to the energies of people and things around me and I had reached a point where I really needed his help.This painting hangs in my studio and protects me. 

The paintings below are part of series that I have been working on recently titled " songs of the heart". 

I have tried to portray the contemporary Indian woman in all her many avatars today.

"The perfect Indian bride. 

Well brought up, cosmopolitan, educated, financially independent.

Adept at managing (micro managing) home, children and husband.

Well turned out ( designer brand stamped), fit or anorexically thin, manicured and saloned.

The perfect wife, perfect mother, perfect hostess, perfect businesswoman!

it’s a 24 hr job…and one should be able to do it all blindfolded! "

The  idea of the blind folded bride is taken from the the Mahabharata and is the story of Queen Gandhari, the wife of the king Dhritarashtra, who when she realised her furture husband was blind from birth and couldnt see, wore a blindfold over her eyes for the rest of her life. She had decided that if her husband could not see, she too would not see.

There is of course a huge conflict in the minds of many Indian women today, caught between the various expectations and commitments they have both taken on and been given. It is difficult. They are many who make it look effortless, balancing everything with precision. But there are many like me :) who struggle to balance the few balls we have thrown up in the air!

At the end of the day, these are all situations we create ourselves.. in conservative families I suppose it still is a huge issue, but in most contemporary homes its a choice we, the women make. Most of us secretly crave to be that perfect, mythical domestic yet professional and cosmopolitan goddess, whose husbands worship at their feet, mother in laws praise endlessly, colleagues and coworkers look up to, and other women envy!

These paintings are embellished with sequins, metal pieces, silk flowers, ribbon and more... 

They have a jewel like intensity to them!

Painting when it rains!

I love painting when it rains ! I love smelling the water on dry earth, watching the gray clouds scudding across the sky, the rain lashing down, it just makes me want to paint and paint and paint! I make myself a nice cup of chai, take myself up to my studio and start sketching out ideas.  The monsoon is a something that we all eagerly wait for.. its the end of  a brutally hot summer, the gardens bloom, all the plants are green and all the dust and grime that coats every surface here gets washed clean. 
I have been working on a new set of my abstract landscape paintings. I paint these on paper or canvas sheets in Acrylic mainly as it dries quickly during the rainy season. I usually add mixed media elements to the finished acrylic painting and then rework it..over and over until the image matches up with the one in my head.. of course happy accidents do happen but I know where I am going with each piece 90% of the time.
These paintings depict two subject matters - "Angel song"  and "Freedom". 
Everywhere you go in India, you are surrounded by religion and faith of different kinds. These are some times tangible, sometimes audible, sometimes visual.. usually a combination of the three. " Angel song" is my interpretation of all the calls to prayer,  vedic chants and choirs I hear around me. India is an incredible mix of cultures, faiths and religions.. at the end of the day I think it really boils down to spirituality and faith.. no matter what religion you believe in, what traditions you follow, the voice of one of true and pure faith rings out like divine music and can always be heard soaring above the rest. Thats what I have tried to paint... that beautiful song.. the songs of angels.

"Angel song"  24 inches/18
Rs. 10,000

"Angel song 2"  21.4 inches/30
Rs. 10,000

Freedom means different things to everyone. 

All over Hyderabad you see pigeons, I believe the numbers have decreased hugely over the years. You see them flying in the sky, sitting on rooftops, windows, telephone poles and wires, on pavements, cars and every conceivable surface! Some of these are free, wild birds and the rest are tame. The funny thing about these tame birds is that they are kept in pigeon coops on rooftops of their owners houses and released every morning. They fly around the neighborhood, all day invariably returning home to their coops by dusk. I often draw parallels between our human lives and the birds! 

The paintings in this series are abstract landscapes with the domes and minarets of a city below and soaring birds above. 

"Freedom 2"  24 inches/18
Rs. 10,000

"Freedom 3"  24 inches/18
Rs. 10,000

"Freedom 1"  17.5 inches/25
Rs. 11,0

Art classes for the summer !

It's really hot outside!  And with the summer holidays around, you will have to find new ways to keep the kids occupied indoors! I've got a set of classes for the summer! Contact me at 9848570140 or email me for further details!

Painting Picasso's - ( age group of 5 - 8) 

Kids learn to create artwork inspired by famous artists from around the world. One class weekly.  Workshop fees are Rs. 2000 a month.

Drawing 101 - ( age group of 8 +. Adults also taught)

Learn the basics of creating realistic artwork. Composition, line, form, color etc. Introduction to pencil sketching of still lifes. One class weekly.  Workshop fees are Rs. 1200 a month.

Advanced art - ( age group of 9 + only)

Learn to sketch, shade and create realistic finished still lifes and nature studies. Learn to use water soluble color pencils to create watercolor style paintings. One class weekly. Workshop fees are Rs. 2000 a month

Art Journaling for adults 

Journaling techniques and tips will be taught in this class for adults. Learn to create a colorful, vibrant visual diary or inspirational art.  One class weekly. Workshop fees are Rs. 2500 a month.